2
NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2008
42 Cdo 45 Cdo HMS Dasher HMS Pursuer Naval Strike Wing/40 Cdo/ Vikings/846 NAS/FSMASU
HMS Somerset HMS Sabre/Scimitar
539 ASRM HMS Atherstone HMS Chiddingfold RFA Diligence
RFA Wave Knight RFA Largs Bay
FASLANE ROSYTH HMS Torbay HMS Ark Royal FPGRM HMS Cornwall HMS Gannet SAR HMS Bulwark HMS Ledbury HMS Raider PORTSMOUTH 771 NAS
HMS Campbeltown HMS Manchester HMS Enterprise HMS Argyll HMS Ramsey HMS Blyth RFA Cardigan Bay RFA Bayleaf 820 NAS 857 NAS RFA Lyme Bay HMS Nottingham HMS Clyde HMS Endurance
Plus one ballistic missile submarine on patrol somewhere beneath the Seven Seas
HMS Portland DEVONPORT
Fleet Focus THE Royal Navy’s major deployment of the first half of the year, Orion 08, has got off to a rather faltering start thanks to some engineering troubles for flagship HMS Illustrious.
But while the cat’s away... minehunters HMS Atherstone and Chiddingfold have been enjoying semi-autonomy as they edge ever eastwards, first visiting The Rock (see opposite), then Malta (see pages 8 and 9). The Orion force will eventually unite and head east of Suez, already the domain of HMS Argyll (see page 4), Campbeltown, Ramsey, Blyth and RFA Cardigan Bay; the latter has just replaced RFA Sir Bedivere, which has returned to the UK and paid off for good (see pages 6 and 7). Back too from the Gulf – possibly for good – are the fliers of 847 Naval Air Squadron who have completed a tour of duty in Basra (see page 6). Now home, they can prepare for another tour of duty, this time in Afghanistan. Out of the frying pan... Their Commando Helicopter Force comrades, 846 NAS are already in theatre (see the centre pages) getting used to an environment the Harriers of the Naval Strike Wing and the Royal Marines of 40 Commando (see pages 14 and 15) are now accustomed to. Life in the Gulf region can be a bit monotonous, so lions and dolphins livened things up aboard HMS Manchester – the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins (see page 7). In rather cooler waters, destroyer HMS Nottingham had the gremlins from Flag Officer Sea Training drop in on them in the Falklands for a week to hone their fighting skills (see page 7), while the islands’ new patrol ship HMS Clyde headed to South Georgia for the first time to get to know the area... and its manifold penguins (see page 22). The penguin-related tomfoolery doesn’t end there. Nope, as if there were not enough pingus in this world, now there are more of them as HMS Endurance found a previously unknown colony. The icebreaker also found the wreck of the cruise ship Explorer which sank last year (see page 37). At the other end of the earth, there’s a convergence of RN/ RM forces around Harstad in northern Norway for winter war games. Involved are HM Ships Ark Royal, Cornwall, Albion and Bulwark, plus RFA Mounts Bay and 42 and 45 Commandos (see page 7). In home waters, the deeds of the Search and Rescue men and women of HMS Gannet and 771 NAS have deservedly been in the news for two high-profile rescues off the English coast (see page 4). Getting to know home waters all over again is Fleet submarine HMS Torbay, the first boat in the Silent Service to receive electronic charts – among other enhancements during a yearlong revamp (see right). Knowing how Royals like to blow things up, we spent a couple of days on the range with them in Dorset... blowing things up (and learning the art of being a ‘tankie’ – see page 23). The Royals also stop things blowing up sometimes, most notably Britain’s nuclear arsenal, which now has an extra layer of protection thanks to the green berets of Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines (see page 16). Minehunter HMS Ledbury and university boat HMS Raider met in the Channel off Deal to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the Channel Dash (see page 13). Sailors from HMS Richmond were applauded through the streets of Hampshire’s county town as Winchester hosted a parade for veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq (see page 21). If that isn’t praise enough for the frigate, she’s also our ship of the month (turn to page 12). HMS Exeter drew thousands of visitors at the London Boat Show (see page 17)... but if you missed her there’s another chance to meet your Navy at an event in Portsmouth in July, cunningly titled Meet Your Navy – the successor to Navy Days (see page 36 for details).
Manual labour HUNTER-killer submarine HMS Torbay is at the forefront of underwater warfare after emerging from a year-long overhaul. The Trafalgar-class boat is the last of Britain’s fleet submarines to be fitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles… but the first to receive the latest version of the weapon, Block IV. And Torbay is also the first vessel in the Silent Service to ditch paper charts having been fitted with the electronic mapping system WECDIS during her year alongside in Faslane. WECDIS has become bread and butter for the surface fleet in recent years, where it has drastically cut the workload of navigators. Torbay’s navigator Lt Simon Donovan expects it to do the same for his job – but first he has to write the manual. WECDIS for boats is different from the surface variant. For a start, once submerged there’s no way of knowing precisely where the submarine is; surface ships receive constant GPS updates to their location. Submariners use a complex series of algorithms and calculations to estimate their position underwater – creating an ellipsis within which their boat should be found. As long as the submarine remains within that ellipsis, she should be safe. Those same algorithms have been programmed into WECDIS and each five seconds it will update the ellipsis – which is drawn around the submarine on the computer screen. The Torbay team have less than three months to learn how to use the new navigational system – and two of those are spent in the simulators. “There is no handbook for WECDIS in submarines – the pages are blank. FOST are learning at the same time as we are. We’ve got to write the manual,” explained Lt Donovan.
“I’ve already had guys from the next boat to get it ringing up, asking for all the information we’ve compiled.” With writing that manual and planning routes on paper and on computer, WECDIS is doubling the officer’s workload. In time, however, it will half it. “Planning the route into Faslane, for example, would take two to three hours on charts. With WECDIS, it’s a 20-minute job – and once it’s done it can be saved so you don’t have to keep planning it,” Lt Donovan added. “I will not miss the paper charts and WECDIS will give me more time to devote to other duties, such as divisional responsibilities.” WECDIS links in with the submarine command system (SMCS or ‘smacks’), allowing contacts to be marked on the map. “Boats are making more use of WECDIS than the surface fleet,” said CPO(TSM) ‘Kirsty’ Nicoll. “The picture we have for command of the boat is superb. It’s good to see we’re going forwards, not taking one step backwards.” Another step forward comes in the form of Block IV Tomahawk which allows the missile to be ‘re-targeted’ in flight; the Block III version of the weapon would self-destruct if it veered off course. Away from ‘warfighting’ improvements, life aboard Torbay on deployments should be slightly more bearable. Her crew will be able to send and receive emails at sea for the first time and, on occasions, access the internet.
The improved communications system will gather all the electronic mail written by the submariners and each time the boat is at periscope depth, she will send back all this data – and pick up any incoming email. “It should revolutionise things,” said Lt Jez Barron, Torbay’s deputy weapon engineer officer. “As well as the hearts and minds aspect, all the surface ships do a lot of their work via email so it’s important that submarines integrate with them. “Most of the time we’re operating dived, but we’ll pop up to periscope depth, get all the info in and out and then dive again.” Keeping hearts and minds happy has been a challenge with the boat spending a year away from her home port; Tclass boats are usually overhauled in Devonport. Unsurprisingly only a handful of Torbay’s crew live near Faslane; most live in and around the West Country. “Generally speaking the lads have not been out of pocket up here thanks to warrants,” said CPO Nicoll. “I did tell my wife: ‘Don’t come to Faslane.’ She doesn’t believe me that the weather’s so bad up here. “On the plus side, because we’re in Faslane the lads have not been itching to get away in the evening, and that has focused the minds.” Torbay is undergoing trials following her revamp and will return to her home port of Devonport ahead of work-up for an impending deployment later this year. ● Steely skies for Torbay as she conducts trials near Faslane
Picture: PO(Phot) ‘Mez’ Merrill, FRPU Clyde